Sonic 3 Complete is a hack of Sonic 3 & Knuckles which aims to provide a much improved variant of the original game, with many new options and features, without straying from the original levels or gameplay. The inclusion of separate modes for Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles and Blue Sphere also make this a close cousin of the PC compilation Sonic & Knuckles Collection, albeit designed for the original 16-bit hardware.

Main Features

The following is a summary of some of the most notable changes included in Sonic 3 Complete. Please see the Full List of Changes and Options section for a more detailed list.

Sonic 3 Design and Presentation

The original Launch Base layout in action.

The Death Egg crashes.

The primary inspiration for the project's creation was the idea that Sonic 3's presentation got a lot of things right that Sonic & Knuckles changed for the worse. As such, the default setup for Sonic 3 Complete restores Sonic 3's audio and visual style for the whole game, including, amongst other things, the original main game themes, Knuckles' iconic Jacksonesque drumbeat and associated miniboss theme, the reflective lack of music in zone transitions, the original title cards and a lack of "and Knuckles!" exclamations glued in wherever possible.

For the Sonic 3 zones, the original object layouts are available, and are used by default in most cases. Launch Base's tricky traps are hence restored to their full power, and watching your step during the Hydrocity wall chase is well advised.

Perhaps most notably of all, the transition between the Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles zones is much improved, restoring Sonic 3's final boss Big Arm for Sonic and Tails at the end of Launch Base, and providing a cutscene based on the Sonic & Knuckles title screen to bridge the gap.

For those who aren't so set on Sonic 3 being the better half, it is possible to revert most of these changes using menu options or patches, and even to apply different musical configurations when playing the separate Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles halves.

Zone Order Restoration

Battery Night.

It is commonly understood that Flying Battery Zone was originally intended to be played between Carnival Night and Icecap, but was moved around late in the development of Sonic 3. Sonic 3 Complete features an option to restore it to that position, with a suitably altered night sky, and a further optional change to the indoor colour scheme to match the unused save screen icon from Sonic 3 (which has also been restored). When moving from Flying Battery to Icecap, the snowboard sequence involves the broken exit door from Flying Battery, as was once planned. Mushroom Hill also takes its name from the Sonic 3 level select, Mushroom Valley, and a new transition takes you from there straight to Sandopolis if Flying Battery is moved away from its normal position.

Tweaks and Fixes

Tails' intro.

Properly spiny.

No more last-minute cast changes.

A large number of tweaks and bugfixes have been made to smooth over rare and common issues in the game. Most bugfixes are always on and cannot be disabled, but subjective feature tweaks can mostly be reverted to the original behaviour.

Rather than being the third wheel, the Tails experience has been upgraded: he now has his own intro sequence, like Sonic and Knuckles (whose Sonic & Knuckles intro has been moved to the start of the full game in Angel Island), his own continue screen, and his own colours on the results screen. A feature borrowed from Sonic 1 2013 allows Sonic, in a Sonic and Tails game, to have AI Tails start flying by holding up while double-jumping; Sonic can then be picked up by Tails and control Tails' flight, allowing him to explore further without having a second player present. The controls for Tails' flight in this mode can be toggled between Sonic 1 2013-style, in which player 1 directly controls Tails and down must be held while jumping to detach, or traditional Sonic 3-style as used during the Marble Garden boss, where player 1 can use the d-pad to direct Tails.

One significant change affects activation of super forms; this now requires pressing a different button from the one last used to jump to transform in mid-air, allowing for usage of all double-jump abilities without forced transformation, and allowing Sonic to transform even if he has a shield. The same alternate-button double-jump can be used to cancel a super transformation. While transformed, rather than being forced to listen to the invincibility theme on endless loop, the default behaviour is to speed up the existing level music as if you had super sneakers. All of these changes can be reversed individually in the menu if preferred.

Once you do activate Super or Hyper Sonic, you'll find that unlike the original game, the vast majority of his graphics now correctly reflect his change in form (though this does not currently extend to the Sonic 1 or Sonic 2 alternative sprite patches).

Bugfixes cover all sorts of issues, from common annoyances (such as Robotnik showing up for Knuckles in Flying Battery, or the unreadable HUD text in Angel Island) to tiny details (such as mapping frames being slightly misaligned, or doubled-up rings in the same spot). Since each available game in the collection runs from the same engine, all fixes are available whether playing Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles or Complete mode within the collection; as such, the included version of Sonic 3 is much improved over the original due to inheriting additional fixes present in Sonic & Knuckles. (The included Blue Sphere now allows you to play as Tails, too, and the same can be achieved in Sonic & Knuckles mode via debug cheats.)

Please see the Full List of Changes and Options for a more thorough listing. Please bear in mind that there are still many bugs from the original game in evidence, although many of the more problematic issues have been taken care of.

More Music Options

Much more music.

In addition to switching between Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles music, ValleyBell has created Mega Drive versions of the additional tracks exclusive to Sonic & Knuckles Collection, which can be used in place of the original Mega Drive tracks; the unused theme from that collection is available as alternative music for Super Sonic. Music based on the classic theme used in Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 is also available as an alternative.

Alternative Gameplay and Sonic Jam features

Easy mode springs - the antithesis of the Sonic 3 version.

Sonic Jam's additional Easy and Normal difficulty modes are available, with their corresponding object layouts, slower special stages, and in the case of the former, reduced act count and easier bosses. These features are complemented by a new Casual Gameplay option, designed by Hayate and used in his "Casual" hacks, which allows game to be played without fear of death, for novices or a quick blast.

The options menu allows Sonic's control method to be changed from his Sonic 3-style to mimic other games in the classic series. If you think the shield moves make life too easy, or you want a peelout move and unlocked roll jump in Sonic CD-style, these options provide an alternate experience.

Additional Patches

Snowboard One.

Taking the classic experience further, it is even possible to swap in sprite sets of Sonic and Tails that closely mimic their looks from Sonic 1 or Sonic 2, as well as reinstate the classic shields and/or monitors in place of their updated forms. The additional sprites used in Sonic 3 that never existed for those games have been faithfully recreated based on the available artwork. Due to the large volume of data involved in these changes, these options - along with a few other bells and whistles - are only available via the external ROM customiser, or through the IPS patches supplied below.

Tails' tails no longer disappear while he is jumping after the credits

Fixed Super Sonic appearing in the wrong pose when dropped by Tails (visible during the final Marble Garden boss).

2P Tails is less prone to suicide before the final battles of Launch Base Zone.

Fire dashing or spindashing into the Death Egg boss area no longer causes collision issues.

In certain circumstances, it is possible to break Launch Base pipes containing water without following the water through the tube. Going offscreen would cause the water jet to be lost, rendering further progress impossible. The water jets now respawn correctly.

The initial restart locations for Act 2 of Angel Island, Hydrocity, Launch Base and Lava Reef now better reflect the act 1 finish positions, making time results more comparable.

Attached platforms and objects are removed after the Launch Base building collapses.

The capsule at the end of Hydrocity is now correctly centred for Sonic and Tails.

SONIC text is no longer backwards when the Tornado flies left during the ending.

Sonic's exit from Lava Reef to Hidden Palace is now blue rather than red.

Fixed bugs relating to the Icecap act transition: you can no longer fly over the boss, and dying without having hit a starpost will correctly return you to the start of Icecap 1.

Fixed spring artwork occasionally not being loaded for the Gumball Bonus Stage.

It is no longer possible to gain additional lives for having 100 and 200 rings in the Lava Reef boss area if those lives were already earned earlier in act 2.

The Lava Reef and Death Egg boss areas will remember their starting timer if you die and restart (unless you die from a time over)

Robotnik's bald shine on the save screen is no longer red.

The Launch Base music now only restarts once after Knuckles defeats the Act 1 boss.

Drowning timer resets when turning hyper, along with music if necessary

Knuckles no longer turns into Sonic at the end of the slot machine bonus stage.

Various double jump fixes for Sonic, mostly involving unintentionally going into a slow bubble bounce by double jumping right before a bubble shield activated.

Fixed bug where a time over would not restart the starpost timer after continuing from a game over.

Fixed final Launch Base boss code to release Sonic from the arm after the boss is defeated - this was firing in the wrong situation, making Sonic always drop to standing after clearing the boss, but leaving him stuck if Tails killed the boss while Sonic was held.

Fixed object and ring layout oddities in various zones, including the infamous double ring in Angel Island 1 and the improperly retracting spikes in Carnival Night 2.

Super Tails' flickies no longer ruin the Sandopolis miniboss or the first Death Egg 2 boss.

Fixed duff palette cycle when retransforming into super/hyper form

Fixed Tails using the wrong sprite when hit by the boulder in Lava Reef.

The Death Egg no longer appears in the background of Lava Reef when playing as Knuckles.

Tails will drop out of flight mode if he is tired and hits a diagonal spring in Carnival Night, preventing him from getting stuck.

Insta-shield now deflects projectiles, as appears to have been intended all along

Tails' flight now only deflects projectiles if they hit his tails. (Previously he could deflect anywhere, but only if falling.)

Prevented super transformation during snowboard sequence

Fixed odd palette on HUD lives numbers in some levels

Fixed issue with continues not being saved unless a special stage is completed

Fixed Sonic incorrectly appearing as Hyper Sonic briefly during the ending when he shouldn't be able to.

Fixed occasional misalignment of continue screen

Fixed wrong tiles on Continue screen if you hit Game Over with Super/Hyper Sonic

Fire sprites no longer appear underwater in Angel Island

It is no longer possible to repeatedly double-jump in the Hydrocity fan tubes

Incorrect grabber arm sprite on DEZ final boss fixed - now uses the latched rather than open variant.

Fixed jittering screen lock after Marble Garden 1 miniboss

Workaround added to avoid occasional loss of music track change if requested during the 1up sting.

Follower Tails now behaves more sensibly at the end of Mushroom Valley/Hill.

Fixed abrupt/unsynced camera/music transition at the end of Sandopolis 2.

The rumbling sound during the closing sequence of Flying Battery is no longer missing when restarting from the final starpost.

The falling animation is used after the Mushroom Valley/Hill Knuckles cutscene instead of the walking animation.

Fixed odd palette cycle stop point on Super/Hyper Knuckles during his ending.

Jump height off Hydrocity rotating cylinders is now appropriately reduced when underwater.

Level music no longer double-restarts before final boss in Death Egg

Competition music no longer restarts while navigating competition menus.

Debug: Hyper Knuckles can now wall smash when turned hyper by a monitor.

Debug: Tails' ring counter now falls in Doomsday.

Debug: Characters other than Sonic appear correctly in Doomsday.

Debug: Knuckles exits Doomsday to the title screen instead of a broken Sonic ending.

Debug: Going into debug when dead now restarts object processing.

Debug: The debug cursor now respects screen locking.

Changes specific to Blue Sphere

Tails has been added as a playable character in Blue Sphere.

While playing a special stage through Blue Sphere, pressing while paused will return to the Blue Sphere select screen.

Pressing on the Blue Sphere menu screen will now return to the title screen. Your progress will be retained until you reset or turn off the game.

Changes specific to Sonic 3

The included Sonic 3 runs completely on top of Sonic 3 Complete's engine, and hence inherits all relevant improvements from Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic 3 Complete, while retaining its own layouts, save files, bonus stage structure, etc.

The credits list used is from Sonic 3 & Knuckles to reflect the integration of the games in this collection.

On the "Try Again" ending screen, the emeralds juggled by Knuckles are now coloured correctly.

The Death Egg's behaviour at the end of the game has been slightly altered to match the complete story.

Tails retains his unique game clear icons on the save screen.

If no saves are present for Sonic 3 mode, the game will attempt to import data from the complete game where appropriate.

Changes specific to Sonic & Knuckles

The credits list used is from Sonic 3 & Knuckles to reflect the integration of the games in this collection.

Options

Menu Options

Skip the game select screen and start one of the individual games immediately on boot up.

Play through the "Easy" and "Normal" versions of the game introduced in Sonic Jam.

Use the full set of Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles level layouts.

Play Flying Battery in its original position between Carnival Night and Icecap, and/or with an earlier colour scheme design.

Disable the added ability for Sonic to control Tails' flight, or swap the carrying controls for those used in Sonic 1 2013.

Choose between the various soundtrack options for individual tracks, including Sonic & Knuckles Collection and Nakamura themes, or configure the game to use different soundtracks in each mode.

Go back to using the invincibility music for super/hyper transformations, or use the unused PC track for this purpose.

Disable all music (useful to set a gameplay video to an alternative soundtrack)

Change the moves and abilities available, so that the game plays more like other classic Sonic games.

Use the original Sonic 3 & Knuckles double-jump/transformation button setup (any double-jump invokes a super form transformation, if available, unless Sonic has a shield, which prevents transformation).

Disable the ability to cancel out of super or hyper forms.

Patches

Use player sprites and palettes styled based on Sonic 1 or Sonic 2. The sprites were put together by That One Jig and Neo.

Use monitor sprites based on those seen in the first two games, also edited by That One Jig.

Remove elemental shields and replace them with Sonic 1 or Sonic 2-style shields.

Continue Knuckles' fight music throughout the remainder of Hidden Palace

Use the original ending music (Sky Sanctuary instead of Sonic 3 Credits) - this can be set separately for Sonic's and Knuckles' endings.

Start the Sonic 3 Credits music with the credit sequence (best used when the ending music has been changed back to Sky Sanctuary, otherwise the below patch is more useful) - this can be set separately for Sonic's and Knuckles' endings.

Allow the ending music to continue through both into the credits - this can be set separately for Sonic's and Knuckles' endings.

Revert to the original method of gaining continues from the slot machine bonus stage

Toughen up the Sonic 1-style control options, removing the ability to spindash. (Note that this makes the game impossible to complete on anything other than Easy mode!)

Revert to the original, incomplete set of sprites for Super Sonic.

Known Issues in the Current Release

Changes made in the Options menu will not be saved to or loaded from SRAM when using the Regen emulator. This problem does not affect flashcarts or any other tested emulators. It is still possible to use the menus if desired, but changes will not be saved after a hard reset or closing the emulator. Savestates may be used to preserve selected options.